#and then they stand around awkwardly during the guitar breaks. and don't even go all out when they ARE singing.

[benchowmein]

I think a real issue of mine is that I truly believe in performing karaoke and get annoyed at karaoke nights because other people don't understand how to do it

[mischief-marauders]

Modern Marauders: Halloween costume gone wrong

Sirius slammed his charms book down on his desk. “No! Do not ask me again! I am not risking your parent's wrath!"

James sat next to him and flashed him a grin. “Our parents. You don’t want to risk our parent's wrath.”

Sirius smiled softly with a blush creeping over his cheeks. “Our parents.”

James slapped his knee and Sirius gave him a smirk. ‘I’m still not risking it”

James flopped back on the bed and groaned. 

It was Halloween night and they were home, bored out of their minds. James would’ve gone out but Sirius was grounded due to an unfortunate mix of boredness, fireworks, Remus’ favorite sweater, and a Charms classroom. James didn’t want to leave Sirius by himself so he didn’t make plans. Until he checked Instagram and saw that Lily and Remus had gone to a muggle party in her neighborhood. It had all of his favorite things. An unsupervised house party, alcohol, and Lily. Oh and Remus.

James pouted at Sirius. “Please Sirius? Lily and Remus are having the time of their lives and you know how much I love Halloween parties. I promise we’ll sneak out and be back before mom and dad get home.”

Sirius snorted as he read his Charms book, doing the extra readings as part of his punishment.  “Your plans never work and we always end up getting in trouble. I don’t want to risk our parent's wra-”, Sirius paused as James looked at him with a puppy dog face. 

“I am not falling for that asshole,” Sirius said as he scowled at James.

James' eyes got bigger and his bottom lip protruded more.

Sirius groaned. “If I say yes, will you stop?”

James whooped and sprinted to their shared closet. “Yes. Now, what’re we going to wear? Oh! We can wear out Hogwarts robes!”

Sirius clapped sarcastically. “Great idea Jamie! Let's wear the uniform from our school of magic to a muggle party. Dumbledore would love that"

James groaned in frustration. What else could there be? He had a Mexican and Brazilian soccer jersey but that would be too basic. He needed something fresh. Original. Something that would impress Lily. He suddenly spotted a lone red hoodie and grabbed it with a triumphant smile on his face. He turned to Sirius, holding the hoodie above him like a prize.

Sirius raised his eyebrows as James asked “So, what are your opinions of paint on fur?”

Remus took a sip of his beer and surveyed the party with practiced disinterest. Lily’s neighbors who went to a muggle school in the area had invited them and while he wasn't too fond of Halloween and seeing people in werewolf costumes, he needed to get out a bit. Lily sidled up to him and let an exaggerated sigh of air. She was in the Scarlet Witch costume she had worn some time ago for his birthday party. He donned his Captain America costume to match with her. It was still the best birthday he had ever had and he loved having an excuse to put it on again

“Still haven’t talked to Sirius yet?”

Remus snorted and took a gulp of beer. He had been giving Sirius the cold shoulder. They all had plans to come to the party together but someone had the bright idea to set off fireworks during charms class. Which resulted in a furious Flitwick and Remus’ favorite sweater being charred. 

“I still need to ignore him for a couple more days to make sure he gets the message.” 

Suddenly, Remus yelped and dropped his beer on the grass as something nosed at his ass. Lily turned around, fist up and ready to pummel whoever decided to grab Remus when she dropped her fist and a grin overtook her face. James was standing there, grinning and dressed as Miguel from Coco and Sirius in dog form, painted to look like Dante. James was wearing jeans, a white shirt, a red hoodie over top, and his face was painted like a skull. Sirius the dog was covered in a rainbow of colors and patterns, looking exactly like one of the magical Alebrije’s from the movie. 

Lily laughed and asked “Are you serious?” at the same time that Remus bent down, scowling at the dog and asking, “Are you Sirius?”. 

Padfoot wagged his tail and barked at Remus.

James shrugged and said, “I was going to bring a guitar but that would’ve been too much.”

Remus ran his hands through Padfoot’s fur and scowled at James. “Do you know how long it’s going to take to get this paint out of his fur?”

James ruffled his hair in nervousness and tried not to make eye contact with the dog. 

“Oh come on, I looked it up. The paint will come off when he transforms back."

Remus narrowed his eyes in suspicion as Padfoot growled at him. James flashed him an overconfident grin, hoping it masked his lie. He had zero idea if the paint would come off. Sirius only agreed to be painted if it would come off immediately after.

Suddenly, Padfoot turned around and trotted into the house, full of blaring music and dancing teenagers. 

Lily traced her finger over the paint on James’ face.

“This looks amazing. I didn’t even think you knew what Coco was.”

James put his hand over hers and flashed her a small smile. 

“I heard you talking about how it's your favorite movie and it does have my people in it. I had to watch it. You have good taste by the way."

Remus was pretending to vomit at their flirting when a terrified girl in zombie makeup came out of the house, walking straight to them. 

“Um Lily?’, she started nervously, “Your friend's rainbow dog is drinking beer from a bowl in the kitchen. We tried to take it away but he growled and snapped at us”

Remus groaned and ran into the house, mumbling “Dumb dog”

Zombie girl drifted away as James grabbed Lily around the waist and put his hands gently on her hips. 

“By the way, I love the costume. You look amazing.”

Lily blushed and opened her mouth to flirt back when she was interrupted by Remus being dragged out of the house, his wrist clamped gently between Padfoots teeth. 

“Sirius, where are you taking me? I shouldn’t even be talking to you after what you just pulled. I don’t know how things worked at the noble and ancient house of incest, but dogs normally don't drink alcohol."

He paused as some of the people milling about outside of the house looked at him in confusion. 

“Can I fucking help you?”, he snarled at them. He glared at them until they all turned away awkwardly. Padfoot dragged him into the woods next to the house. 

All Lily and James could hear was Remus muttering “If you’re dragging me into the woods to try something, I hope you know I’m not turned on by the dog form”  

James looked down into Lily’s eyes. She looked ethereal under the moonlight. Her green eyes were alight and looked like shining emeralds. The look in her eyes and smirk on her lips drove him insane. He will always be amazed at the fact that she gave him a chance to show her that he's not a toerag. It's been months and every day it feels like a dream come true. He leaned his head down a little and she lifted her's to meet him halfway. Their lips were less than an inch away from each other when they heard screaming coming from the woods. James and Lily looked up startled as they saw Remus running out of the woods, bent over with laughter. A scream of frustration came from behind him along with the sound of pounding feet.  

“I’m going to fucking kill you James!’ Sirius roared as he ran straight at him from the woods, completely naked in human form, yet still covered in the paint he had on with his dog form. 

Lily screeched and covered her eyes as Sirius tackled a laughing James and knocked him over. 

Remus was bent over, gasping for air between his laughter. 

"You should've seen his face when he saw that he was still painted" Remus crowed, his face alight with mirth.

Sirius sat on top of a cackling James and pinned his arms behind his head. He struggling to hold him and let out a groan of frustration

“Stop laughing so I can kill you, asshole”

“You look so good though!” James wheezed between laughter and gasps of air as Sirius punched him in the stomach.

“You knew the paint wouldn't come off” Sirius hissed angrily.

James' eyes were watering with tears as he tried to break from Sirius’ hold. 

“I didn’t think you were going to transform back so soon! How was I going to know that you would try to get frisky with Remus during a Halloween party when you have zero clothes? C’mon, you wouldn’t have come with me otherwise and this costume needed a multicolored dog”

Sirius let out a huff of angry air as he punched James one last time and then stood up. He couldn't even be mad. It was a genius idea and something he probably would've done. This was going to be funny as hell if they somehow managed to get the paint off before their parents came home.

Remus wiped the tears from his eyes and struggled to stop laughing as Lily ran into the house and came back out with a tablecloth. She handed it to Sirius and helped a groaning James up as Remus helped tie it around him in toga style. 

Sirius was tying it in the front when he turned slightly and flashed a cheesy grin at Lily. “My eyes are up here Evans”

Lily rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “You wish Black. I've seen enough of you tonight to last me several lifetimes. Do you have any shame at all? Are you not embarrassed to be naked in public? Is public nudity normal to you?”

Sirius shrugged and held Remus' hand. "What's there to be embarrassed by?"

Remus raised his eyebrows at Lily. "You should try sharing a dorm with him. He doesn't believe in doors, curtains, or privacy."

"He thinks he's God's gift to humanity", James said as he checked his abdomen for broken ribs. Once he was sure that nothing was broken, he held his bruised stomach and grinned at each of his best friends. He wrapped one hand around Lily's waist and he threw his other arm around Sirius's shoulders, making sure to squeeze his shoulder hard enough to bruise. 

“Now that thats over, let's party?'" James said as he led his friends back into the party, humming Proud Corazon under his breath.